The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Introduction
• Jeremy Bentham and James Mill
• Rationale of Judicial Evidence
• Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind
• Botanical Writings 1840–61
• Calendar of Odours April 1840
• Rare Plants In West Surrey June 1841
• Isatis Tinctoria June 1841
• Notes On Plants Growing In the Neighbourhood of Guildford, Surrey August 1841
• Cnicus Forsteri September 1841
• Additional Guildford Stations September 1841
• Polygonum Dumetorum November 1841
• Rarer Plants of the Isle of Wight November 1841
• Corrections and Additions In Mr. Mill’s List of Plants In the Isle of Wight January 1842
• The Phytologist; a Botanical Magazine December 1843
• Notes On the Species of Oenanthe February 1845
• Correction of an Error In the “notes On the Species of Oenanthe” April 1845
• Observations On Isatis Tinctoria and Other Plants May 1856
• Plants Growing Wild In the District of Luxford’s Reigate Florajune 1856
• Note On West Surrey Plants July 1856
• Reigate Plants October 1856
• Plants Growing On and Near Blackheath April 1857
• Late (early?) Flowering Plants: Plants In Flower In the District of Eltham and Chiselhurst, In November, 1857 January 1858
• Hutchinsia Petraea May 1858
• Leucojum Aestivum July 1858
• Clifton Plants July 1858
• Plants On Sherborn Sands, Blackheath, and Other Stations September 1858
• Some Derbyshire Plants September 1858
• Linaria Purpurea September 1858
• Faversham Plants October 1858
• Lepidium Ruderale April 1859
• Wallflower Growing On the Living Rock May 1860
• Spring Flowers of the South of Europe: Remarks On Some of the Spring Flowers of the South of Europe, and On Their Representatives In the British Isles October 1860
• Botany of Spain. a Few Days’ Botanizing In the North-eastern Provinces of Spain, In April and May, 1860 August 1861-february 1862
• Verbascum Thapsiforme October 1862
• Medical Reviews 1834, 1842
• Dr. King’s Lecture On the Study of Anatomy November 1834
• Carpenter’s Physiology January 1842
• Appendices
• Appendix A: Wills and Deed of Gift 1853-72
• Appendix B: the Vixen, and Circassia April 1837
• Appendix C: The Spanish Question July 1837
• Appendix D: Questions Before the Select Committee On Metropolitan Local Government 1867
• Appendix E: Mill At the Political Economy Club 1840-65
• Appendix F: Textual Emendations
• Appendix G: Index of Persons, and Works Cited, With Variants and Notes

Plants on Sherborn Sands, Blackheath, and Other Stations

SEPTEMBER 1858

. . . i foundElymus abundant about Sherborn Sands, which, it may be new to you to hear, are now shut up; but the key can be had for asking for, without the bore of an attendant. I have investigated the corner of Blackheath, and soon sighted Geranium pratense. Being thus satisfied that I was in the right place, I sought and found, among a profusion of Trifolium striatum and minus, three Medicagines, being lupulina, maculata, and another, prostrate, with spinous fruit and unstained leaves. This last could not be minima, as it was far from having entire stipules; but on comparing it with undoubted specimens of maculata, though I could find no difference in the fruit, I flattered myself that there was somewhat more of denticulation on the stipules, and that it might be denticulata. But alas! next day I found others exactly like, except that they had no more denticulation, and here and there a trace of stain on the leaves. On the whole, I fear this is not the denticulata of foreign botanists, or else, as you surmise, theirs does not differ from maculata. I do not think there are any other Medicagines in the locality this year.

I see in British Plants you date the discovery of L. Martagon in Headley Copse from 1840.¹ If so, I can claim earlier discovery, as I have known it there from 1826. For a year or two it puzzled me grievously, as I dared not think it could be Martagon; but about 1829 I found it in flower, and, I believe, wrote to Sir W. Hooker about it; but he, as you know, repudiated it as a British plant.² I should like to know if I was also the first to notice Impatiens fulva. I found it below the bridge at Albury, in 1822, but mistook it for Noli-me-tangere. Apropos, I searched last Monday the skirts of Weston Wood for Arundo Epigejos, but fruitlessly. I see you consider Adiantum a maritime plant;³ I suppose therefore it is so in the British Islands; but I have never known it as such, its habitats in the Alps, Italy, etc., being those of Scolopendrium,—damp walls, vaults, very shady and moist ruins, the spray of waterfalls, etc., and in no way affecting maritime localities.

[1 ]In his Illustrated Handbook of the British Plants (London: Nelson, 1858), Irvine gives Headley Copse as a station, but without a date. The reference may be to his Introduction to the Science of Botany, 5 pts. (London: Nelson, 1858), p. 297, where he vaguely says to see the Phytologist “as above”; much earlier, however, Luxford (then editor) had, in an appended note to a communication from Newman, reported the same station for Lilium Martagon in Surrey in 1826 (Phytologist, I [Sept. 1841], 62).

[2 ]Mill did not write to W.J. Hooker until 26 January, 1831, about his discovery in 1829 (EL, CW, Vol. XII, pp. 69-70). Hooker’s repudiation of Lilium Martagon as a British plant is in the 6th ed. of his British Flora; Comprising the Phaenogamous, or Flowering Plants, and the Ferns (1st ed., 1830) (London: Longman, et al., 1850), p. 444.

[3 ]Irvine, Illustrated Handbook, p. 183.